The Sands of Time
by Ellie Dee
Summary: During the Second Gulf War a discovery is made.


TITLE: "The Sands of Time."  
AUTHOR: Ellie Dee EMAIL: WEBSITE: RATING: PG13 PAIRING: None.  
SUMMARY: During the Second Gulf War a discovery is made.  
SPOILERS: Consider anything through Highlander: Endgame and my own Highlander stories as being fair game.  
DISCLAIMER: The Highlander universe is the intellectual property of Garry Douglas, Davis-Panzer Productions and Gaumont Television. In other words, my "Paycheck" is a bunch of strangers telling me how good this story is. See Feedback. DISTRIBUTION: You want it, you can have it. Just please keep my name and Email address on it and let me know where it's wandered off to. FEEDBACK: Please!!! This is my drug of choice and I really need a fix. DEDICATION: To those men and women, past and present, of the United States military who served with honor. Noble warriors all.  
  
"The Sands of Time."  
By Ellie Dee  
  
Sandking Base, Iraq 5 October 2003 1625Hrs.  
  
The Marine Corp. Chinook helicopter touched down amid a miniature sandstorm. Even before the helicopters twin rotors had quit turning, the Marine platoon it was carrying began to disembark.  
  
All 36 were Force Recon; ghosts, ninjas. Men specially trained to travel silently and unseen behind enemy lines gathering intelligence for their fellow Marines.  
  
Once clear of the blinding sand and noise one of the Marines took another off to the side.  
  
"Gunny, get the men back to their tents. I want their weapons cleaned and inspected inside the hour, then get them over to the Mess Hall," said Second Lieutenant Mike Carver.  
  
"Right Lieutenant, what about you?"  
  
"I'm going to make my report to the C.O. I'll let you know what I find out at chow."  
  
"Aye sir, I'll get the men squared away."  
  
As Carver watched Gunny Harris herd the men over to their company area, he felt some of the tension he always felt around his platoon sergeant begin to bleed away.  
  
At 23, Carver was the youngest officer in the battalion and often looked upon Harris as an old man. A scary old man of 36. He would have been surprised to find out that Gunnery Sergeant Robert Harris was actually rather fond of his lieutenant and thought he would eventually make a pretty good Recon Marine, for an officer.  
  
Making his way across the camp, Carver soon found himself standing outside the tent of his company commander. After knocking on the wooden door, the young lieutenant entered to a loud "Come!"  
  
Inside, Carver found Major Daniel Lewis, commander of Headquarters Company 2nd Battalion 3rd Marine Division.  
  
"Carver, you look like shit, sit down."  
  
"Thanks Skipper."  
  
As Carver sat down Major Lewis reached into the ice chest next to his desk and pulled out two cans of Coke. Passing one to Carver, Lewis sat back in his chair, opened his own can and took a drink. "So, how'd the patrol go Mike?"  
  
After downing half his drink in one long pull Carver set the can down on his commander's desk.  
"Not much to report Skipper. The rotorheads set us down on the western edge of area India 245 at 0715 Hours Lima yesterday and we began our patrol of India 245 and Juliet 245."  
  
"We were checking out some caves for terrorists in the foothills of India a little after 1500 Hours Lima when a sandstorm kicked up. I decided we'd use the caves for shelter till it blew over. While the men rested and ate, my Platoon Sergeant and I went over our maps."  
  
"About an hour later Corporal Brooks passed the word that his team had found something. Gunny Harris and I made our way to the rear of the cave. There we found what appeared to be a wooden door. I had Sergeant Gomez, my senior demolitions man, check the door for booby traps. When he told us it was safe I had the men break it down."  
  
"Break it down?" Major Lewis asked. "You mean the door was barricaded from the inside?"  
  
"Not quite Skipper. Apparently part of the ceiling had fallen in. Anyway, once we were inside we found a room that had been carved out of the rock walls. There were a couple of old wooden tables covered with some rolled up scrolls, some wooden stools and shelves that were carved right into the walls."  
  
"So, was an Al-Qaeda nest?"  
  
"No way Skipper, no one had been there for a long time, a real long time. Those scrolls? Most of them were falling apart. I mean this stuff was old! There were a couple that were unrolled and I looked at them. The stuff looked like Babylonian."  
  
"Since when do they teach hieroglyphics at Quantico?" asked Lewis.  
  
"Lieutenant Mike Carver, 313th Combat Archeologists, Sir!"  
  
Lewis rewarded Carver with a stony glare.  
  
"I took a course in archeology my senior year at Duke. The writing on the scrolls looked like some of the stuff we saw in class." Pausing, Carver bent over and reached into his rucksack pulling out a clay tablet about the size of the palm of his hand. Sitting up he handed the tablet to the older Marine. "Also there were these clay tablets laying around."  
  
Carefully Major Lewis turned the tablet over in his hands. On one side was etched several strange markings that for lack of a better description looked like a narrow ring surrounding an arrowhead.  
  
"I figure that when all this settles down archeologists might want to take a look at the place. So I decided to bring this back just in case. Anyway, once the sandstorm died down we continued our patrol until 2100 Hours Lima when we made camp. We were back up and on the move by 0530 Hours this morning and completed our patrol of Juliet 245 at 1500 this afternoon. We were picked up at 1530 and landed here about an hour later."  
  
"So other than the cave, the patrol was pretty much a bust?"  
  
"Yes sir. We saw some signs of vehicle movement in the area, but it was pretty old."  
  
"Ok Mike," said the major nodding. "I'll go ahead and take care of this tablet, so go clean up and get some chow. Your platoon's going to stand down for the next 72 hours."  
  
"Right Skipper, thanks," said Carver getting to his feet.  
  
For a long time after Lieutenant Carver had left, Major Lewis sat staring silently at the ancient clay tablet. Then, unbuttoning the cuff of his BDU shirt, Lewis rolled up the sleeve and stared at the tattoo on his dark wrist. The same design as that etched into the tablet. The trefoil of the Watchers.  
  
THE END 


End file.
